1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to pillboxes and, more particularly, to a pillbox that can be attached to a portable electronic device such as a cellular telephone or personal digital assistant.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pillboxes in a wide variety of sizes and shapes have been known for many years. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,372,445; 4,640,560; 5,740,938; and 6,082,544. Unfortunately, as shown by the referenced patents, pillboxes often are large, cumbersome objects that are difficult to transport conveniently.
Recently, portable electronic devices such as cellular telephones and personal digital assistants have become widely available. For convenience, any such device will be referred to herein as a “PED.” PED's purposefully are compact and portable, and usually are carried by their owners at all times. However, PED's are used only for such purposes as aural communication, mathematical calculations, and so forth. While the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,107,911 discloses a self-contained programmable time interval alarm for medication administration, the device is large and unwieldy. More specifically, the device employs a housing that employs a clamp with two jaws to accommodate the neck of a medication container. Desirably, a pillbox would be available that could be attached to a PED and carried therewith. Any such pillbox hopefully would be compact, inexpensive, and readily usable.